Growing up, when every kid in the neighborhood ran around with a towel tucked at the back of their shirt pretending to be Superman, I just sat at a secluded corner as if I was Batman. He was my hero. He still is.
Believing in a fictional character is not really the issue; it’s what the character represents. More important are the core values they insinuate, the impetus they exude. That’s why we were inspired by Jonathan Livingston Seagull, enamored with Romeo and Juliet, and touched by the Velveteen Rabbit.
Batman Begins is a movie about beginnings, obviously. The irony of it is that an end has to happen before a beginning takes effect. And it does. A young Bruce Wayne discovers that the estate he uses as a playground is not at all fully safe. Here he is introduced to his greatest fear – bats. It’s quite ironic, but that is further explained in the course of the film.
From hereon, the ends and the beginnings multiply. The most definitive moment comes with the murder of Bruce’s parents. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) jettisons his life into a chain of questionable decisions, which is debatably of noble regard but deficient in overall purpose. Until, while in an anonymous prison camp, he is visited by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and bestowed with a chance for focus and retribution.
Batman’s significance to me is that unlike other super heroes, he’s basically just a man. He’s not a mere man, though. He is driven by will, purpose and promise. In my head, his brooding image stayed, like a nocturnal creature resting inside a dark belfry that was my mind.
Years ago, I chose several career paths. At the onset, the cliché "jack of all trades, master of none" seemed to preoccupy my thoughts. Maybe it was time to run away from it. However, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I would acquire the necessary skills I needed for my dream – to build an educational foundation for the less-fortunate. Noble? Yes. Easy? I don’t think so.
Ducard acts as Wayne’s mentor, teaching the ways of the League of Shadows, an elite army of warriors with an eclectic armada of skills and techniques. Unfortunately, Ducard is also prone to playing god. He is bent on bringing "balance" by annihilation and rebuilding a new and pure Gotham City, a belief that is altogether an amalgamation and bastardization of the theories of Machiavelli, Nietzsche and Malthus. Here the moral kinetics start as Wayne chooses a different path, the path less traveled – to be a purveyor of justice. In doing so, he has to face his former mentor who now assumes his true identity, and the chilling fear-obsessed Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), nefariously known as the "scarecrow."
Through all these, Batman is ably assisted by his butler and more importantly, father figure, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) who never gave up on his ward. A Hephaestus-like inventor in Lucius Fox (ably portrayed by Morgan Freeman), an idealistic detective in Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and childhood friend-turned-assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) are driven by their desire to be a beacon of light in the darkening and degradation of the city they love.
The story obviously has been altered from its origins for the demands of the celluloid world. Yet, I will fight the urge to nitpick, since it has stayed true to the myth and essence of the dark knight, unlike the previous movie installments. Director Chris Nolan brought back the gothic and dark aura of the caped crusader which has long been wolfed up by the campiness of Batman and Robin. In the fifth installment, Christian Bale plays both Bruce Wayne and his alter ego well.
Batman per se speaks volumes in terms of character and idealism. Bruce Wayne could have taken a different route with all the wealth and power he inherited after his parents died. Yet he didn’t. Fiction or not, that’s worth emulating. That’s why Batman Begins is my favorite movie.
I don’t have the millions to fund my would-be foundation. And when people go around pretending they’re gods and beyond the others, I don’t have a weapon to use. But I no longer scowl at a secluded corner, either. I believe in justice and ideals. I still do.